The pressure to "be on social" is steady and largely unhelpful. Most Irish small businesses don't need Instagram and TikTok and LinkedIn and Facebook and X. They need to be present on one or two platforms — the ones their customers actually use — and to show up there with quality, not volume.
Pick the platform from the customer, not the trend
- Local-trade business (plumber, electrician, restaurant): Facebook still wins. Older demographics still use it heavily; community groups are how local recommendations spread; Facebook reviews and Google Business Profile reviews are what people check.
- Visual product or hospitality (florist, café, hairdresser, accommodation): Instagram. Photo-led, location-tagged, hashtag-discoverable.
- B2B / professional services: LinkedIn, with caveats. Useful for thought leadership and recruitment; rarely a direct sales channel for a small Irish firm.
- Younger consumer audience, particularly food / fashion / lifestyle: TikTok or Instagram Reels. Fast-moving, requires actual production capacity.
- News, current affairs, specific niche communities: X. Reach has fallen sharply; engagement is concentrated in particular subcultures.
What to post
Three reliable post types for almost any small business:
- Before/after, problem/solution. The thing you fixed. The before photo and the after photo. Why it matters. People share these.
- The team behind the work. A short clip of someone explaining what they're doing. Builds trust faster than any logo or strapline.
- Customer questions, answered openly. The questions you answer in person every week. Filming yourself answering them, or writing a short post about each, is content production for free.
Avoid: motivational quote graphics, "happy Friday" filler, AI-generated stock images. They don't help and they signal you have nothing real to say.
How often to post
Two to three good posts a week beats a daily flow of mediocrity. Consistency over frequency. The single biggest predictor of social-media failure for small Irish businesses is starting a daily posting cadence and burning out at week six.
How to know it's working
Don't measure followers. Measure these:
- Direct messages and enquiries generated through social.
- Website traffic from social, in your analytics.
- Local foot traffic attributed to "saw you on Instagram" — ask new customers how they heard about you.
- Reviews and word-of-mouth spread, particularly on Facebook for local businesses.
If after six months of consistent posting you can't trace any business outcomes to social, the channel is wrong for you. Stop, redirect the time to email or SEO.
What it costs to do well
- DIY in-house: 3–5 hours per week of someone's time. The single hardest cost to admit, because it's not invoiced.
- Light freelance support: €300–€600/month for content scheduling and posting; you supply photos and ideas.
- Full-service social agency: €1,200+/month — usually only worth it for businesses with €5,000+/month in social-driven revenue.